JUNG BAHADUR'S NEPAL - A HAVEN OF REFUGE

"In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity", Sir Winston Churchill.

The burden of defeat carried many of the mutinous Indian leaders and their near and dear ones all the way to the Nepal Terai. They came in desperation: caravans of the weary and hungry, wounded and dying. Most had left all their possessions behind in the hurry to escape the justice of the victors. They sought refuge from destiny.  Many came in hope, some of the leaders with trepidation: would their former enemy Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana hand them over to the British? They knew what that would mean. The fall of Delhi had led to the slaying of the children of the Last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zaffar and the old man's banishment to Burma. The once mighty Mughal dynasty of Babur, Akbar and Shah Jehan had met an ignominious end. What would happen to the ruling dynasties of the Maratha warriors and the Kingdom of Avadh?

Jung Bahadur had returned to Kathmandu triumphant. The visit to England, the victory over the Tibetans and now the crowning glory of his career, the victory in the Indian Mutiny, had firmly put him in an unassailable position in the kingdom. For the first time since the Anglo-Nepal Wars Nepal held its head high and Jung Bahadur rightfully took the credit. Even his enemies grudgingly recognized his genius, his farsightedness and bravery. He had indeed done Nepal proud. The grateful British had returned to Nepal some of the land in the Nepal Terai ceded to the British over fifty years earlier. The "new territories" of Banke, Bardia, Kailali and Kanchanpur would add significant revenue to the national coffer. Too, Jung Bahadur and his armies had brought back enormous treasures from the "Lucknow Loot". Amidst all this brouhaha disturbing news came to Jung Bahadur that would shatter his peace of mind, test his mettle and Nepal's fortune too.

After leaving the stifling heat of the Gangetic plains, the refugees entered the Terai jungles only to encounter the secret weapon defending Kathmandu valley from marauding armies of the south: plasmodium vivax, the malarial parasite. The wounded and the weak, the stragglers fell prey to wild animals. The once proud armies that had challenged the might of the East India Company and nearly succeeded in bringing it to its knees were in tatters. Begum Hazrat Mahal with the 12 year old son king Birjis Qadr and a ragtag retinue of desperation entered Nepal. By 1859 Nana Sahib the Maratha warrior along with a large retinue of followers including several wives was also seen crossing the border into Nepal after months of hiding. His last stand at Gwalior had been thwarted, his prime minister Tantya Tope captured and executed. Jung Bahadur's border posts had been put on full alert. The movement of the erstwhile enemies closely watched. The news had to be sent to Kathmandu post-haste.

Begum Hazrat Mahal

Begum Hazrat Mahal and her retinue slowly made their way through the 4 kos, over 10 miles, of dense jungle before coming into the valley. Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana had offered her and her son sanctuary after considerable deliberation, at first refusing her request. Consequences of granting refuge to those wanted by British India could be dire for the hero. But at the same time he wanted to establish Nepal as a sovereign kingdom and he no longer wanted to be seen kowtowing to Colonel Ramsay the British resident. The love-hate relationship between the British Resident and the Nepal Durbar was legendary. The sympathy at the plight of the defeated Indian rulers was palpable at most aristocratic homes. The Begum was grateful to her erstwhile enemy for the sanctuary.

It was something about Kathmandu valley that brought a sense of deja vu to the Begum, descending from Thankot in her coolie chair, carried across the shoulders of four burly Gorkhali pipa. She glimpsed at a distance the gilded pagoda roofs, the Bhimsen Tower and the stupa on the hill. She searched her memory. She saw images of herself playing in similar surroundings; there was a fleeting glimpse of the ping she used to swing in against the white mountain background, then nothing. She closed her eyes and searched her memory once again. She was in a strange city now full of horse-drawn tongas and minarets, walking, walking; and then she was picked up to be trained as a tawaif, a courtesan. She was taught to dance the mujra. She entered a large house Pari Khana, House of Fairies, and suddenly she was the star of the show.

Nawab Wajid Ali Shah

The Wali'ahd or heir aparent's mother the Queen had taken a great liking to her, perhaps because she was a good dancer, perhaps because she was fairer and prettier than the rest and perhaps because she had the hill look about her. Wajid Ali had taken her as his concubine, his mahak pari, fragrant fairy, and then after the birth of her son Birjis Qadr, as one of his mut'ah wives. As they say, the rest was history. The King Amjad Ali Shah had ordered the firing of 11 cannon gun salutes on the birth of his grandson. She had been reinvented as Begum Hazrat Mahal.

The Company had annexed Avadh in 1856 A.D. a year before the mutiny started. King Wajid Ali Shah was deposed and he chose to leave Lucknow and reside in Calcutta in an estate provided by the Governor General later named Garden Reach. The Mutiny had started in Meerut and gained popular support from the Marathas and the Avadhis. The last Mughal King Bahadur Shah Zafar was petitioned to be the paramount leader of the mutineers harking back to the glorious Mughal period. He had given orders to crown the 12 year old Birjis Qadr as the new king of Avadh and his coronation took place on 5 July, 1857 at the Qaisarbagh in Lucknow with Begum Hazrat Mahal, now divorced from Wajid Ali Shah, nominated to become the Regent Queen. She woke up from her reverie as she crossed the Bagmati River. She was extremely tired. The retinue made its way towards Thapathali, where she was given a temporary residence by the Maharajah.

Dhondu Pant aka Nana Sahib

Nana Sahib could never forgive the British for what they had done to him. The "Doctrine of Lapse" cooked up by Lord Dalhousie to swallow the Indian princely states had taken away his inheritance of the leadership of the Maratha Confederacy and a large amount of pension. Unable to have children the last Maratha ruler Baji Rao II had adopted Dhondu Pant as a young boy and styled him as Nana Sahib, a Maratha hero from a bygone era, nearly as illustrious as the legendary Shivaji. The British in all their perfidy would not recognize adopted children, only direct lineage! Nana Sahib suddenly felt old. He had gambled and lost. Now he would have to take refuge in one place or another for the rest of his life. The Nepalese had shown him great sympathy and he was grateful to Jung for that. He would send his wives and his son to Kathmandu. The marriage to his third wife Kashibai had not even been consummated! He would himself wander the Himalayan range as a mendicant. He knew that the only thing he could save of himself hereafter was his soul.

Birjis Qadr, last king of Avadh

Maharajah Jung Bahadur took care of his guests well. He took the old Sanskrit saying, "Atithi Devo Bhava", Guest is Divine, to heart. He bestowed pensions becoming of their aristocratic stature. Begum Hazrat Mahal decided later to spend her time away from the limelight of Kathmandu and retired to Nuwakot, where she would die on 7 April, 1879 A.D. Her son Birjis Qadr left Nepal for Calcutta after his mother's death. By some accounts Nana Sahib passed away in Deukhuri, western Nepal. Others saw him in Constantinople. His virgin wife Kashibai found love in the court of Nepal.

Birgis Qadr in Calcutta

People say that Begum Hazrat Mahal was buried in the grounds of the Jama Masjid in central Kathmandu. Today, just off the shopping market there is a grave without any marking but under lock and key.

I have come across a couplet in Urdu describing her in her last repose.

Ai bad-e-saba aahista chal
Yahan soee hui hai Mahak Pari

(O’ zephyr, blow sweetly and calmly
Here lies in slumber Mahak Pari)